Money, money, money and politics

Money has no morality, but that doesn’t mean it should be dispensed by those who share that failing. That is particularly the case when it’s the people’s money, our tax dollars, that are being dispensed.

For instance, since going on a murderous rampage at Fort Hood, Muslim jihadist Maj. Nidal Hasan has collected $278,000 in salary from the Army. Meanwhile, because his crime was designated “workplace violence,” his surviving victims have been denied various benefits, including Purple Hearts, which would have increased their disability pensions.

More recently, Lois Lerner, the IRS bureaucrat who took the Fifth during her congressional hearing, although she insisted she did nothing wrong and told no lies, was placed on administrative leave, a euphemism for a paid vacation.

But compared to what we dole out to other nations, most of whom openly despise us, that’s chump change. We give $316 million annually to Mexico. Ostensibly, it’s to help them wage war on drugs. And we can all see how well that’s going. If it were up to me, I’d make them build a wall on their northern border before giving them another peso.

As for the latest attempt at what congressional schnooks like to call comprehensive immigration reform, why should we want to create a pathway to citizenship for what they insist are 11 million illegal aliens? (and what I’m betting is at least twice that many.) They sneaked in. If someone sneaks into your house, does he get to stay there just because he’s managed to hide out in your cellar or your attic?

I realize that a certain segment of the population known as nitwits will accuse me of being a racist. But first they have to explain how it is racist to resent the Mexicanization of America, but not racist to promote such a policy at the expense of those patiently waiting their turn in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In somewhat related news, in Patterson, N.J., the Palestinian flag was raised over city hall after Mayor Jeffery Jones proclaimed May 19th as Palestinian American Day. I’m waiting for Gov. Christie to weigh in on this, but I’m not prepared to wait too long.

Along similar lines, I’m wondering what right we have to force-feed the jihadists at Gitmo. If they wish to starve themselves, how is it our business to interfere? For all I know, it could be an integral part of their glorious religion, along with suicide-bombs, honor killings and clitorectomies.

I would also be interested in discovering why we, who are about $17 trillion in debt, insist on coming up with $531 million for Tanzania; $580 million for Ethiopia; $625 million for both Nigeria and Kenya; $676 million for Jordan; $1.5 billion for Egypt; $1.7 billion for Iraq; $2.1 billion for Pakistan; and $2.3 billion for Afghanistan.

I’d also like to know just exactly when we adopted Africa and the Middle East. Where was I when the announcement went out? If only I’d known, I’d have sent a card and a couple of baby blankets.

The nation that receives the most money from us is Israel. But at least that’s $3 billion going to an ally, a democracy with whom we share values, traditions and, perhaps most important of all, sworn enemies.

Assuming my ears weren’t playing tricks on me, Obama recently declared that, for all intents and purposes, the war on terrorism was over. Inasmuch as jihadists were still killing people in London, Boston, Iraq and Afghanistan, the last time I looked, I guess he was acknowledging that, under his leadership, they won and we lost. For a minute or so, I was really depressed. But then I realized the schmuck never tells the truth, and I was greatly relieved.

While on the subject of money, I would like to know why there should be corporate taxes. It’s not just that ours happen to be the highest in the world, which explains why major entities like Apple and G.E. don’t bring their foreign profits back to the U.S. to be used for expansion and dividends, it’s that corporate taxes serve as a tremendous drag on an economy that has lacked traction for years now.

It’s one thing to tax the earnings of corporate executives and their employees and shareholders, but what purpose is served through taxing a corporation as if it were an individual?

Another tax that should be eliminated is the death or, for those who have a superstitious reluctance to say that word, estate tax. The money that is left by the deceased has already been taxed when he earned it and again when he got a return on his investments. For the tax collector to swoop in like a vulture just because the person has died smacks of grave robbing.

Finally, under the heading of it’s not what you know, but who you’re related to that counts in Washington: ABC reporter Claire Shipman is married to Press Secretary Jay Carney; CNN President Virginia Mosely is married to Hillary Clinton’s former Deputy Secretary Tom Nides; CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, a top Obama adviser and the fellow who helped edit the Benghazi talking points; and ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama’s special adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.

I swear there’s more inbreeding among these left-wing elitists than you’ll find in the backwoods of Tennessee. It’s a wonder their kids don’t all have 12 toes and suffer from hemophilia.

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